Chapter 1

CRYSTAL.

To everyone else, he was my brother's best friend, the polite one who helped me with homework, who always called me 'kiddo' with that easy smile.

But to me, he was my biggest sin ever.

I should be at home, in my bed, sleeping and getting ready for my big day in school tomorrow. But here I was, standing before my sin with nothing but my nightie while he made me moan his name into his palm clasped around my mouth.

We couldn't even be loud because this was forbidden. Darek would kill us both if he ever found out about our secret affair. My parents would disown me. And his parents? They’d never forgive him. If Jaden’s secret ever reached them, he’d lose his chance to take over his father’s company when he turned twenty-six, just four months away.

So, this was the secret we guarded with our lives.

It had started years ago, when I was sixteen and foolish enough to crave the forbidden.

I'd always had a big crush on Jaden, even though he was older than me.

I’d watched him from the living room, from the stairs, from the passenger seat when he came over to see my brother. He was older, confident, and breathtakingly handsome... He was the kind of man the world bent toward.

Back then, I was just the girl who blushed when he ruffled her hair.

He never noticed me. He always saw me as a little sister whose homework he always helped out with. But when he finally noticed me a few months ago, on my twentieth birthday party, I didn't hesitate to let him take the one thing I held dear to me. My virginity.

He said he'd loved me since I turned seventeen. And I believed him. I believed every word Jaden ever had to say to me.

Some people might think I was stupid, but I also believed him when he said he'd come back and make our relationship known to both our families so we could finally be together after his three-month business course in the UK.

"Jaden... I wish you didn't have to go. I... I'm scared..." I whispered to him as he snuck me out of his room through his back window.

We stood under the night sky just at the back of our house, holding each other's hands.

There was a look in his eyes that I immediately depicted as sadness.

"No matter what happens, Crystal, you're the one I'll always love. I promise." He said, cupping the side of my face as he caressed gently.

I leaned into his touch, lovingly and naively as always, nodding at every word that came out of his mouth, like a fool in love,

He kissed me so deeply, like one who might never see me again. I could swear that kiss tasted like goodbye. But of course, I didn't expect anything less from a man who was going to be away from his girlfriend for three whole months.

When he pulled back, his forehead rested against mine. "Just promise me that no matter what, no one would ever know about us, okay?" His blue eyes searched mine with creased brows.

"Okay. I swear it. I'll keep your name out of any scandal, Jaden."

He smiled — that soft, devastating smile that had ruined me from the start.

“I love you,” he said. “I’ll see you when I return.” He kissed me again.

The way he said those words hurt. His absence would hurt even more. But I had to look forward to the bright future I'll have with him the moment he returns and takes over his father's company.

I'll finally be free of the Peterson family, where I had never been treated like a daughter to them for once in my life.

***

TWO MONTHS LATER.

"You are no daughter of mine! You're a disgrace to this family!" My father yelled at me, not minding the crowd of students snickering behind us.

Tessa, my parents' favorite daughter, stood beside Dad, smirking with satisfaction.

And now, kneeling in front of the Dean's office after Porsha, the school bully, found the pregnancy test I hurried to the bathroom to take this morning, and exposed it to the whole school, my parents were there to finish the humiliation. The Dean had called them. And they were on the verge of disowning me.

"Let's take this home. We'll get the truth out of her," Mum spat beside Dad.

What truth?

Telling them who was responsible for my pregnancy? That would be over my dead body. There was no way in hell I'd tell them that Jaden was responsible for this. Not when his entire life and inheritance would be on the line because of such a scandal.

The drive home was full of tension. The moment we stepped into the house, all hell let loose again.

One hard slap to my face from my father, and the expulsion letter I was holding slipped from my hand and fluttered across the tiles.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” my father roared. “Do you know what this scandal has done to our name? Our businesses? We’ve become the city’s laughingstock — all because of you!”

Another sting on my cheek spread through my skull. I fell hard to the floor, tears smearing across my hands.

The pain in his words hit my chest so hard I almost lost my breath.

I'd won competitions. I'd represented my school in interschool, interstate, and even international competitions.

I'd brought my school and my family fame and glory. But this one mistake was one that had struck out everything I had ever worked hard to achieve in my entire teenage and youthful age put together.

"Dad. Mum. Please..." I went on on knees.

“Don’t you ever call me ‘Dad’ again!” he barked. “I am not a father to a loose whore like you!”

Another slap. My vision blurred.

“Who’s the father of that bastard you’re carrying?”

I bit my tongue so hard I could taste blood.

'Over my dead body,' I thought. 'You’ll never know. None of you ever will.'

“Just tell them, Crystal,” Derek said quietly, standing beside me. His voice shook with disappointment. “Save yourself more humiliation.”

My brother’s voice — the one that used to defend me from everyone — now sounded ashamed to even know me.

I looked up at him through tears, shaking my head again and again. I couldn’t speak. I wouldn’t.

The look of disgust and betrayal from my parents tore me apart.

The atmosphere felt heavy, like even the house couldn’t bear to harbor me anymore.

But I could never throw Jaden under the bus.

“From this day on,” my father thundered, “you are no longer my daughter!”

He pointed toward the door like I was something filthy he wanted gone. “No more allowances. No more name. You’ll stay in the boys’ quarters — and you will never set foot in this house again!”

His words didn’t just cut. They hollowed me out.

“You, Crystal,” he spat, voice shaking with rage, “are no longer a Peterson.”

Something inside me cracked. And somewhere in between his words and my sobs, I felt the moment my world stopped belonging to me.